Penny Wong accuses Coalition of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ in Senate estimates as Chinese warships sail into Great Australian Bight | Asia Pacific

Three Chinese warships have sailed west into the Great Australian Bight, as Penny Wong accuses the Coalition of deliberately stirring controversy over live-fire drills that the flotilla conducted last week in the Tasman Sea.

During a fractious Senate estimates hearing Thursday morning, the foreign affairs minister accused the shadow home affairs spokesperson, James Paterson, of ignoring national security in favour of spearheading a “political attack” on the government.

Wong condemned the politicisation of the issue domestically, saying some politicians “seem to be insinuating” Australia was responsible for China not giving notice of its live fire drills last week.

“We now see gunboat diplomacy being added to the litany of war talk from the opposition,” she said.

“Such rhetoric does not make Australia safer.”

But Paterson accused Anthony Albanese of contradicting the foreign affairs minister and defence officials, and questioned whether he was “across the details”.

“It is in the public interest to understand why the prime minister has repeatedly inaccurately described the behaviour of a People’s Liberation Army-Navy task group in our region.”

Wong responded: “You’re not actually interested in the detail. If you were interested in how we are working to keep Australians safe, you would have asked for a briefing [sooner] than four days after the incident happened, but you’re only interested in trying to invest in a political attack.”

No warning was given ahead of time that the Chinese ships were live-firing in the sea on Friday; the first alert came from a Virgin flight that was warned by the Chinese ships over radio that a live-fire drill was already under way as it approached the ships’ position. The plane was forced to divert its course mid-flight.

The civilian pilot alerted AirServices Australia which issued a hazard alert over an 18-kilometre zone to a height of 45,000 feet. Over the weekend, 49 commercial flights were forced to divert around the Chinese vessels.

Australia and New Zealand have raised the lack of warning with Chinese officials, saying it was disruptive to flights and potentially dangerous, while noting the drills were conducted in international waters and in accordance with international law.

NZ navy frigate Te Kaha was monitoring the Chinese flotilla at the time of the first live-fire drill on Friday morning, but its alert did not reach Australia until an hour after the first warning from the civilian flight.

In a statement, the NZ defence force said: “HMNZS Te Kaha’s primary focus when the live firing notification occurred was ensuring the safety of all vessels and aircraft in the area, including civilian ships and aircraft.

“Civilian aircraft and authorities were able to share information that enabled those aircraft to take appropriate action in response.

“The key point is that while these live fire activities are allowed under international law, the manner in which the task group notified its intentions did not meet best practice.”

Australia has maintained that it is convention – also using the language of “best practice” – to give between 12 and 48 hours’ notice of a live-fire drill to allow for ships in the area to take evasive action, and for flights to be diverted ahead of time.

Wong met with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in South Africa this week, and said she made it clear the conduct of the live-fire drills “did not meet our expectations and was of deep concern”.

New Zealand’s foreign minister, Winston Peters, has also met with Wang. Currently in Beijing for bilateral talks, he told reporters he raised the lack of notice with his Chinese counterpart.

“I think it would be true to say that he took our concerns on board,” Peters said.

“This is a failure in [the NZ-China relationship] at this time, and we’d like to have it corrected in the future,” he said.

“That is something which we believe is under consideration.”

On Thursday morning, the Chinese flotilla – the frigate Hengyang, the cruiser Zunyi, and a replenishment vessel Weishanhu – was about 500km west of Hobart, sailing into the Great Australian Bight. It is being monitored by two NZ navy ships and by P8-A Poseidon aircraft.

The chief of the defence force, Adm David Johnston, said this week that it was possible that the three ships are accompanied by an undetected nuclear submarine.

“I don’t know whether there is a submarine with them. It is possible: task groups occasionally do deploy with submarines, but not always. I can’t be definitive on whether that’s the case,” he told estimates on Wednesday.